Footage of 2023 incident in Nashville goes viral

Scottish comedian Rachel Jackson was arrested at Nashville Airport after a sweary showdown with police, it has been revealed today.

Footage of the 37-year-old’s altercation with police officers in August 2023 went viral after being posted on YouTube just before Christmas.

In it she was initially identified just as an ‘entitled tourist’ – but now she has been named  as the stand-up who has appeared in  Still Game, Two Doors Down and Scot Squad as well as her own six-part BBC Three series Bunny Boiler, based on her 2017 Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name.

Jackson moved to Tennessee last year, but admits she ‘lost her mind’ in the States. 

The bodycam footage starts in the Delta Airlines lounge, which she had apparently barged her way into after being denied entry because her ticket was with British Airways.

Police were called and when they tried to defuse the situation, she belligerently refused to engage. ‘You’re going to stop and listen to me,’ said one officer, but Jackson bluntly responded: ‘No, I'm not.’

When later told that BA had denied her boarding to the flight and that she would have to leave the airport, she became even more aggressive, yelling at police: ‘Back the fuck off.’

At one point she screamed: ‘Get your hands off me while I drink my water,’ and told the cops they had 60 seconds to leave her alone. ‘Get your fucking hands off me,’ she screamed as they attempted to put her in handcuffs.

Eventually she was escorted out by cops into an awaiting police car.

Jackson - who was first identified as the woman in the video by the Daily Mail – is likely to address the incident in her next stand-up show, American Horror Story, which is premiering as a work in progress at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival in March.

The description of the show, to be performed at The Stand, sat it is 'all about the time award winning Scottish comedian Rachel Jackson moved to Tennessee for love but instead lost her mind.’ 

Published: 2 Jan 2025